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An Appreciation of George Scott, a Red Sox Hall of Famer who started out in Pittsfield

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In this June 23, 1977 file photo, Boston Red Sox, from left, Carlton Fisk, George Scott, Jim Rice and Butch Hobson celebrate a win in Baltimore. Fisk hit two home runs and the others hit one each, setting a major league mark for most home runs in eight consecutive games with 29.
(Associated Press)

Scott burst upon the local scene in 1965, when he played third base for a pennant-winning Pittsfield Red Sox club in the Double-A Eastern League.

Scott’s final minor league season also proved to be the finale for professional baseball in Springfield. That farewell campaign for the Springfield Giants ended Sept. 6, 1965 in Pittsfield’s Wahconah Park, where Scott hit a solo homer in the eighth inning to seal a 3-1 victory.

With that, the PittSox won the pennant by one game over manager Earl Weaver’s Elmira Pioneers. And the home run clinched the Triple Crown for Scott, who led the EL with a .319 batting average, 25 homers and 94 RBIs.

Soon after the close of the season, the San Francisco Giants moved their Springfield franchise to Waterbury, Conn.

Scott’s experience of winning a pennant on the last day of the season would be repeated two years later, when he was part of an underdog Red Sox club that defeated the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park to win one of the tightest races in American League history.

Future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski sparked that pennant run, and won the Triple Crown in the process.

In that season which revived baseball in New England, Scott made his mark at first base, not third. After his sizzling ’65 performance, the Red Sox bypassed sending him to Triple A and moved him into their starting lineup in 1966 at the age of 22. He played third base in his big league debut, but the Red Sox soon converted him to first so they could get another promising rookie, Joe Foy, into the lineup at third.

Scott went on to become one of the all-time best at first base, winning eight Gold Gloves.

In 1967, “The Boomer” had occasional run-ins with rookie manager Dick Williams, who kept close watch on his first baseman’s weight. Despite their differences, Scott certainly did his part for a Red Sox club that went into the season as a 100-1 shot to win the pennant.

He played 159 games, hitting .303 with 19 homers and 82 RBIs. All that after being benched briefly in mid-April, when he was hitting .185.

By 1969, Williams was gone as manager, and the club he had led so brilliantly was being reshaped. In October of 1971, the Sox traded Scott and ¤’67 Cy Young Award winner Jim Lonborg to the Milwaukee Brewers in a package that also included pitcher Ken Brett, infielder Don Pavletich and outfielder Joe Lahoud. In return, the Red Sox received speedster Tommy Harper, pitchers Marty Pattin and Lew Krausse, and infielder Pat Skrable.

Scott went on to have his best season with the Brewers in 1975, while his old Boston club was winning the pennant. Scott topped the AL with 36 homers and 109 RBIs – and that performance led to his being traded back to the Red Sox after the 1976 season, this time for Cecil Cooper, a star at first base on Boston’s ¤’75 pennant winners.

As part of a murderous 1977 lineup that also included Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Dwight Evans and Butch Hobson, Scott delivered his best season as a Red Sox player – 33 homers and 95 RBIs.

Altogether, Scott played nine seasons for the Red Sox and five for the Brewers. He also played parts of the 1979 season, his last in the big leagues, with Kansas City and the New York Yankees.

For his career, he appeared in 2,043 games, hit 271 homers and drove in 1,051 runs.